29 SEPTEMBER 1894, Page 27

A Bankrupt Heart. By Florence Marryat. 3 vols. (F. 'V.

White and Co.)—Miss Florence Marryat has on several occasions seemed to go out of her way in search of unpleasant and unsavoury themes, and her treatment of them has not tended to modify their inherent character. A Bankrupt Heart is perhaps as objection- able a book as she has ever written, and to say this is to say a good deal. A. prominent personage is a certain Mr. Jack Portland, who, as a combination of the profligate and the cad, is, we should hope, unique even in feminine flotion ; and Lord Ilfracombe, his wife, and his mistress, are not much more desirable company.